Tuesday May 31st. vacation notesVacation:I drove up from Cornerbrook to Rocky Harbour. Not too far… I got up around 10 am and left for Gros Morne stopping in Deer Lake for gas and something to drink at the Irving station. Gas is turning into a major expense. I am trying to ignore it as it’s necessary… Deer Lake is the place where you turn right to go to St. Johns or left to go up the Viking trail to St. Anthony ( my destination). So I drove up the Hwy 430 Viking trail and to a town called Woody Point on the south side of Bonne Bay. It is a typical fishing village. I wasn’t disappointed but perhaps it didn’t live up to one guide’s billing. It was sort of run down and economically depressed. A couple of stores and a few small houses and a single fish processing building with a couple of boats. I backtracked to the 430 and headed back north to rocky harbour on the other side of Bonne Bay. Line of sight it would have been about a 20 min drive, but the detour around the mountains and the bay itself translated into 90 mins or more of driving. Cool lighthouse at the entrance to Rocky Harbour’s Lobster Cove.

I stayed at the Ocean View Motel, which despite it’s name has a view of Lobster Cove, and it is the Gulf of St. Lawrence beyond, not the ocean, but it is a nice place with a nice view. I drove over to the nearby Norris Point ( from which you can see Woody Point ). Norris has a Memorial University maritime research station and there are some nice vista’s from a look out going into the town.

Oh, at this point I should mention that the view that is on the cover of the NL tour guide I showed some people is impossible to get to without serious planning. I spoke to a parks official at the Gros Morne Park visitor centre and she confided she was disappointed it was on the cover as it involves a boat ride, a special park pass and an overnight hike/stay in the wilderness to get to it. Similar intensity to hiking across the Grand Canyon. As I was not kitted out for an overnight in the wilderness, I can’t do it. Disappointed, but what can you do?

I had a nice seafood dinner at the Oceanview. Slow service due to one of the waitresses not showing up for her shift apparently. Bt the food was good. I don’t do seafood normally – yeah I know, wrong part of the world to visit, etc. – but the scallops, jumbo shrimp and piece of halibut was great. :P

I took in the sunset from the lighthouse. Nice but not as nice as the ones I saw in San Diego. That night I rejigged my plan and ditched the Labrador ferry due to cost and timing of return trip issues and that the Point Armour Lighthouse was closed this early in the season. So tomorrow is a drive up the West coast to St. Anthony and return to Rocky Harbour on Friday night and stay till Sunday morning. Saturday is going to be a do nothing day. No driving or anything. And then stay in Port Aux Basques on Sunday night before taking the ferry back on Monday morning. The accommodations there look bleak, but that could have just been my first impressions on that early morning.